Chapter 13: Slovakia

(continued)

MAPPING AND EVALUATION OF OPPORTUNITIES

International Decisionmaking

There is no legal regulation of public participation in the decisionmaking process regarding international decisions.

Preparation and Approval of National Laws and Regulations

There is no legal regulation of public participation in preparation of national laws. Generally, citizens may have access to information after the decision has been made and the law has been published in a Book of Code. In practice, NGOs have been notified by the Ministry of the Environment about several laws (such as EIA law, Access to Environmental Information Law, etc.) and had the possibility to send comments to these laws. The consideration of these comments, as well as the notification process and selecting of NGOs informed, is fully at the discretion of the officials.

TABLE 4: Preparation and Approval of National Laws and Regulations
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	-	-	-	-	-	4	4

Preparation and Approval of National Strategies and Policies

According to the EIA law, the public should be notified about preparation of development policies (particularly in the area of energy supply, mining, industry, transport, agriculture, forestry and water management, waste management and tourism) at least two months before it is consulted with the Ministry of Environment. The public is entitled to access the session of parliament when it approves a concrete policy draft.

TABLE 5: Preparation and Approval of National Strategies and Policies
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	-	-	-	-	4	-	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	-	-	-	-	3	-	-

Preparation and Approval of Local Rules and Regulations

The public is entitled to access and observe the session of the local parliament when it passes the local rules. There is no other regulation concerning public participation. NGOs try to influence the preparation of local rules through the local deputies.

TABLE 6: Preparation and Approval of Local Rules and Regulations
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	-	-	-	-	-	4	4

Preparation and Approval of Regional Policies

There is no binding rule regulating preparation of local policies. The public may, however, access the territorial system of ecological stability for the respective area according to the Nature Protection Act.

TABLE 7: Preparation and Approval of Regional Policies
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	-	-	-	-	-	3*	-
* Territorial system of ecological stability

Preparation and Approval of Territorial Plans (Spatial/Local Land-Use Plans)

Land use plan procedure requires public notification about the plan preparation. Citizens have the possibility to inspect the draft plan and to send comments and objections within 30 days.

Only persons whose property rights can be affected by the plan have the enforceable right to be heard. The current trend in the regulation of land-use planning is to strengthen the position of state agencies and to weaken the powers of the local governments.

TABLE 8: Preparation and Approval of Territorial Plans (Spatial Land-Use Plans)
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	-	3	3	-	3	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	-	4	4	-	4	-	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	-	4	4	-	4	4	-

EIA

The EIA procedure provides wide access to information. Less effective is the process of consideration of public comments where there is no enforceable right to have the comment seriously taken into account.

TABLE 9: Environmental Impact Assessment
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	3*	-	-	3*	-	-	-
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	4	4	4	4	4	4	-
Access to information (right to access to information)	4	4	4	4	4	4	-

Siting and Permitting

Generally, the rules governing the administrative procedure including siting and permitting procedure do not allow public participation. Also the access to information concerning administrative procedure is very limited to the parties to the procedure. The only possibility for NGOs to participate at the siting and permitting procedure is to create a new association according to the EIA Act. This association will then be a party to the siting and permitting procedures. However, this is possible only in cases when an activity assessed through the EIA procedure and the NGO should be created just for the protection of the environment concerning the activity assessed (this means that only "new" NGOs can participate). There are also limitations concerning the minimum number of members of the NGO, the minimum number of members living in the affected community. All these requirements create strictly limited conditions for public participation in the siting and permitting procedure.

TABLE 10: Siting and Permitting
	Initiation of DM (problem/ proposal)	Defining the scope, issues and stakeholders (pre-decision scoping)	Defining the scope of DM (impacts and alternatives)	Evaluation of the alternatives	Selection of the alternative (DM about the selected alternative)	Execution of the selected alternative	Post-decision monitoring & enforcement (feedback/ adjustment)
Phases of Decisionmaking LEVELS OF PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Control of decisionmaking (right to decide)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Decisionmaking power is shared (right to joint decisionmaking)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Comments are seriously taken into account (right to be heard)	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Adequate notification (right to be informed)	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Access to information (right to access to information)	2	2	2	2	2	2	2

REC * PUBLICATIONS * DOORS TO DEMOCRACY - CEE * SLOVAKIA